Concord Real Estate Services recently rolled out two mobile property management offices: Fiat 500E electric vehicles, tricked out with a printer, scanner, copier, and sliding desk. Director of management services Aric Ohana, flanked by mobile managers Chris Aguirre and Avi Kram, says the cars are aimed at increasing efficiency. They provide the managers with the tools they need to take care of tenant, maintenance, and vendor issues while out in the field, without having to go back and forth to the office to do the administrative work.

Aric showed us the inner works. The machines run off the vehicle's electricity, and a wireless router allows Avi and Chris to stream movies, er, print and scan to their iPads minis. Since the mobile manager cars were introduced, they've been able to lease units faster, too. They now can show units to prospective tenants, have them fill out an electronic application, and pull up their credit info on the spot. The cars run 100 miles on a single charge and cost about $34k each, Aric says, but state and federal rebates make it economical for small management firms.